In one way or another, we are all leaders. Some are called to bigger things and some are not. It really doesn’t matter, if it is The President, at your job, in your family or in your church, we all have some sort of role of leadership. I hear you some of you saying to yourself, “I don’t lead anything.” Just because don’t have a title doesn’t mean you are not leading someone to somewhere. I would almost guarantee that you are being watched and if you are doing it right, someone is following your example. The flip side is if your doing it wrong, someone is also following your example. Put a title or a role in front of what it is you are doing and it just became even more significant. 

   Let’s say you are a complainer, a gossip or a blame delegator and you are in a leadership role, guess what you are going to create. Even if you are doing some things correctly, these will be the things that stand out. They will see the negative before the positive and will run with it. Let’s take the complainer for an example. He is a manager for a company, he walks over to an employee that he is leading and starts to complain about another employee. He starts talking about his lack of productivity, his messy area or his inability to do his job. How do you think the employee who is being told this is going to react? There are several ways that this could go… One, is he could think, “does he talk about me like this?” Two, he could think the other employee is not a good employee. Three, he could think that the manager is a jerk and should be keeping this opinion and information to himself. There are more scenarios but you get the idea. 

   Now let’s look at it from the “poor employee’s” stand point. If this gets back to him, it will, what is he to think of this? Put yourself in his shoes, what would you think? Maybe this is a leadership issue, not an employee issue. Has he approached the guy and asked if everything is good with him. Has he found out if the guy needs more training. Maybe he has heard the gossip about him and thinks he is just a bad employee. There is one more scenario, maybe he has watched others or even the manager not giving his all and is just following the example set before him. If the manager is a wait and see manager. You know the type, let’s see if it works itself out type of leader, a leader who tolerates and instead of initiates, then he may have created this employee himself.

Hmmm…

   Let me flip this over now. Do you think the manager was just born a jerk? This is just his personality? When you look at someone’s past it will tell you a lot about them. Maybe the manager’s dad was hard on him, talked about him to others, talked about his lack. Could be he was under a manager who treated him this way. It may even be as simple as his home life is not that great and he takes life out on others. All three of theses things can be changed, but until they are, He has open wounds. Trying to lead when you have been wounded, when your still hurting is a disaster! If you have not worked on these things, it is almost certain that they will show up in your life. The deeper the wound, the harder to heal. 

   There are many examples in the Bible about wounded people leading and each one has its own unique result. Saul is a great example. He was crowned King, at his own ceremony he hid. He was in fear before he was put in position by God and rode that path out until he was killed. He feared the very men he should have trusted the most. David was his greatest ally, would have followed Saul anywhere and done just about anything for him. Saul feared David, so he tried to kill him, his own fear of lack, got the best of him and God punished him for it. Saul was wounded, he was a fearful man, his own thoughts ruled him. He thought he was not good enough, brave enough or smart enough an it destroyed him. It made him a poor leader and it showed in the decision he made. If he had listened to Samual, listened to God and followed God’s will, God’s rule and what God thought he was, Saul would have been a mighty and powerful leader. But he allowed his wounds to guide him. 

   I have seen this in my own life, I have lived in fear of my own lack, my own thoughts of inequity. They came back, time and time again. They ruled me, they controlled me and I had no power over them. Until one day, in a small church, things changed. I gave myself to Jesus, I surrendered to God and I continue to surrender. It was not an overnight repair. I had been broken along time and the process took some time. I am better for it today! I am a better man, husband, employee and leader. I am most of all a better servant to my King! He leads better than anyone of us, if we follow Him, we do by His example, we can all be mighty and powerful leaders!